Car Quandry

Hubby and I have a 2002 Chevy Cavalier with a missing hubcap, a dent in the door and 146,000 miles on it. It could use 4 new tires. I have no car ego so all of this is fine and dandy by me. It’s PAID FOR and that’s the only thing that matters. I also have a down payment for the “next car” in the savings account. Hence my quandry.

I’ve only owned two cars in my life – a little Honda Civic I got when I was 25 and then the Chevy. On the Civic’s last legs, I twice saved money for a down payment for the “next car” (the Chevy) only to have to pay it all out and then some on repairs to the Civic. There was one memorable event when I was on a family vacation with my brother and he was driving and something FELL OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF MY CAR ONTO THE ROAD and we heard it go and I yelled, “My savings account!” I was left stranded in another state and my uncle who is a pilot flew me home so I could get to work. A cousin who was out of work drove my car back to Michigan when it was fixed and then got a lift back to Ohio with my brother a few days later. It was a whole-family effort to get Snakelady to work and then get my car back to me. I swore I would never repeat that. I swore that, unless out of necessity, I would never let myself get in that position again. I would always drive safe, reliable cars. They didn’t have to be fancy. They didn’t have to be new. They didn’t have to have four hubcaps. But they had to run. Preferably without a bent coat hanger holding up the muffler (been there, too).

So here’s the quandry. We’re riding the gravy train (running car, no car payment) with the down payment for the next car in the bank. When do we cut and run? We have a driving vacation coming up through the U.P. and Canada. We’re going to be staying at a cottage on a private beach on Lake Michigan that friends very generously allow us to use (a wealthy family sold them the house for a dollar and they consider it a blessing to be shared and passed along among their circle). Last year the people who were staying in the house the month before us had car trouble and it took them a week to get their car fixed there in the U.P. There isn’t a full-service garage near the cottage. That worries me just a little and I don’t like being worried just a little when it comes to my car and being stranded. If that isn’t the most un-fun thing I can think of I don’t know what is.

So: options. Life is full of options. Hubby and I started looking around for a possible next car when we took a good look at the tires and realized the Chevy is going to need money put into it sooner rather than later. We started with Edmunds and began looking at vehicles in this area to get an idea on options and cost for new and used vehicles. Then, Hubby has a friend of over 30 years who is a fleet manager at a large dealership in Milwaukee. We asked him to fax us the specs on all the gently used Malibus in the lot.

Bingo. A nine-month old Malibu LT2 with 13 thousand miles on it. Heated suede seats. Bluetooth as well as a USB adapter. It has the capability to go from automatic to manual (score!). We ran it through Carfax and nothing bad came up. One owner – a rental agency. Good price. If we buy it it will be the nicest car I’ve ever owned.

I went out to the airport yesterday and we rented a Malibu LS to do a test drive. I’ve never driven a Malibu. I wasn’t blown away by the pick-up but it’s a roomy vehicle with a spacious trunk and it looks, well, just fine. Like I said, no car ego. It looks fine. Good enough. It does have this strange lumbar support thing that I think may be irritating my back but I’ll continue to drive it today and we’ll see.

I don’t think we’re going to do a lot better on age, mileage and cost. The only thing is jumping off that gravy train. Do I really want to commit to a car payment again? I don’t. Do I want to start laying out money for repairs for a 9-year old car that leaks going through the car wash because of the dent in the door? I don’t.

Ponder. Ponder.